


Martin and Squoosh

by sweetcarolanne



Category: Original Work
Genre: Childhood Friends, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gothic, Halloween, Mad Scientist's Monstrous Creation - Freeform, Mad Scientists, Monsters, Other, Spooky, Trick or Treat: Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26676511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/pseuds/sweetcarolanne
Summary: Squoosh was the most marvellous creature Martin's Uncle Leopold had ever made.What's a few teeth and claws between dear childhood friends destined to someday fall in love?
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Non-Human Character
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	Martin and Squoosh

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stefanyeah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stefanyeah/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy this story - it was lots of fun to create for you! Happy Halloween!
> 
> Many thanks to my anonymous beta.

As a child, Martin had always loved visiting his Uncle Leopold’s house. Everybody else, including Martin’s parents, thought the place was creepy. Mother and Father only stayed long enough to deposit Martin there for the school holidays and to pick him up afterwards. 

Perhaps Mother and Father thought that Uncle Leopold was as creepy as his huge, sprawling domicile, and that Martin was creepy, too. For they hardly ever spoke to Martin when he was at home, even though they were his parents and they were supposed to love him. In fact, Mother and Father always seemed happiest when it was holiday time and they were packing him off to stay with Uncle Leopold.

Uncle Leopold was Martin’s mother’s uncle and seemed so much younger than his actual age, even though he wore thick glasses and had long white hair. Martin adored the old man, who was very kind and very clever, always had a spring in his step and a twinkle in his eyes, and what the old man didn’t know about science wasn’t worth knowing at all. 

And Martin loved the massive Gothic mansion on the hill where Uncle Leopold lived, with its tangled, overgrown gardens, rooms full of shadows that seemed to move all on their own, and the tall, forbidding tower where the bats huddled during the day and emerged in a dark, flapping mass every sundown. 

He especially enjoyed being allowed to visit Uncle Leopold’s laboratory, where strange substances bubbled in beakers and test tubes, and going down to the basement where eerie wails and the rattle of chains could occasionally be heard (although Martin had never actually seen a ghost down there, despite the whole place being exquisitely dusty and cobwebby, and so gloriously spooky). 

But the best thing of all about Uncle Leopold’s house was Squoosh. 

Uncle Leopold had created many interesting pets for Martin (even though the boy was never allowed to bring any of them home to Mother and Father). There seemed to be a new creation waiting for Martin every time he came to visit. Hairy green spiders the size of dinner plates that liked Martin to feed them pinches of salt, a tank full of fanged seahorse-like creatures that loved to snack on sliced bananas and dark chocolate, and something that looked like a cross between a two-headed tortoise and a doorknob. Martin had no idea what this thing fed on, as it never seemed to want to eat anything (perhaps it lived on air), but Uncle Leopold assured him that it was very patient and would probably be able to learn any trick Martin wanted to teach it. But Martin was content to sit with it in his lap while he was reading and stroke its heads, or try to sing it a lullaby while it croaked along, slightly out of tune.

Squoosh was not a pet, though. She had been Martin’s dearest friend in the world ever since he was seven years of age.

Martin had discovered her hiding under the bed one wintry night, when he had visited Uncle Leopold for the Christmas vacation. He had been feeling a little sad when he arrived, for he was an only child and none of the other children at school wanted to make friends with him; they always laughed at him and called him horrible names whenever he approached them and asked them to play with him. 

When Martin had arrived at the mansion on that chilly afternoon, Uncle Leopold noticed at once that something was not right with his great-nephew, and his usually sparkling eyes were full of tender concern.

“People can be dreadfully cruel about things they don’t understand,” the old man had said to Martin, laying a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder. “That’s why I can never get an assistant who’ll stay on. But I’ll let you in on a very special secret – the very best friends are the ones we make for ourselves.” 

He reached down to pet Two-Heads, who was peeping out of Martin’s shirt pocket, and whispered, “Take a peek underneath your bed tonight, and you shall see what you shall see.”

Martin did as he was told, waiting till the clock struck midnight on Christmas morning.

And there she was, two glittering purple eyes blinking up at him before she launched herself out towards him in a full-on tackle-hug!

A funny little head, like a troll-doll’s except for a pair of sharp tusks like those of a walrus, sat atop a cuddly, fuzzy body covered in pink fur. A very long tail, topped with a fluffy green tuft like a pom-pom, wrapped itself all around Martin and tickled his nose, making him giggle and sneeze in quick succession.

“Let’s go outside and eat lots of snow!” Squoosh cried in a squeaky little voice, and Martin barely had time to grab his hat, coat and shoes before Squoosh pulled him down the stairs and out into a fresh snowdrift, where they both rolled and romped and laughed their heads off before stuffing their mouths with the deliciously cold white stuff that kept falling all around them.

Squoosh may have been a head shorter than Martin, but she was very strong indeed, and had what seemed like boundless energy to play for hours on end!

That Christmas was the best one Martin had ever had.

Soon it was not just during the school holidays, but on the weekends and every other chance he got, that Martin made his way to visit Uncle Leopold. Because whenever he did, Squoosh would be there waiting for him, always ready for playtime and to seek out new adventures.

They would ramble through the garden, Squoosh using her long, sharp claws to scythe through juicy stems of grass (her favourite food when it was not the season for snow). Helping Uncle Leopold in the laboratory was also lots of fun, especially when there was a beaker full of something bubbly and delicious to be taste-tested. And, with several of the hairy green spiders clinging onto Squoosh’s fur and Two-Heads riding securely in Martin’s pocket, the intrepid pair would scour the basement and attic for any trace they could find of those elusive ghosts.

And so it went on, year after year, until Martin grew up and arrived on the mansion’s doorstep with all that he owned in two suitcases and a trunk.

“Now you have an assistant who will stay on,” Martin told a delighted Uncle Leopold, and he, Uncle Leopold and Squoosh celebrated with one of the fizzy concoctions from the lab and a huge dessert of chunky, crunchy ice cubes, which were not quite the same as fresh snow, but just as delicious in their own way.

Martin had arrived just in time for Halloween, which was his and Squoosh’s other favourite holiday. They carved jack-o’-lanterns and made gingerbread cookies in the shapes of witches’ hats and ghosts, and wondered for what must have been the millionth time in their lives if this year would finally be the one when they would catch a glimpse of a real ghost.

While Uncle Leopold stayed behind to hand out bags of his own special brand of handmade candy to any little trick-or-treaters who might come by, Martin and Squoosh fed the seahorse creatures plenty of dark chocolate and bananas, watched the bats fly out on their nightly hunt, and later, as the sky darkened and strange howls began to issue forth from the woods behind the old mansion, they went for a walk beneath the rising All Hallows moon where it was not necessary to pretend to be anybody other than themselves. 

Martin was dressed in one of his brand new lab coats, with Two-Heads riding in one of the roomy pockets on the side. Squoosh had painted her claws and tusks a shimmering silver, to match the webs that the hairy green spiders were continuously spinning all over her fur, and giggled when passers-by complimented her on her costume.

“But it’s so easy to do – all you need is a little bit of nail polish!” she would tell them, and she and Martin would both look puzzled and wonder why those silly people stared.

They wandered back to the mansion, hand in paw, and Martin could not help but think how beautiful Squoosh looked in the moonlight. She was no longer the little ball of fur he had first found under his bed on that long-ago Christmas Day; now she was a willowy beauty of six feet, even taller than Martin. Her lush, thick fur was a brighter pink than ever, and her eyes, tusks and claws shone with a greater brilliance than the stars above.

Just before Martin and Squoosh reached the mansion’s massive iron gates, a group of costumed children ran past them, clutching plastic skulls and pumpkins full of treats. Among them was a pair of adorable fuzzy monsters, one pink like Squoosh and the other electric blue.

Squoosh watched them with eyes wide like saucers, and uttered soft coos. Martin chuckled, gently brushing a spider out of the way as he leaned closer to stroke Squoosh’s soft fur.

“Maybe Uncle Leopold will let us use the lab, and we can create some of our own,” he whispered, and placed a tender kiss on Squoosh’s lips, deftly avoiding the sharpness of her tusks.


End file.
